my reviews of books I have read

BLURB

Incredibly exciting new voice in paranormal fiction.

This is the story of Tommi, a young Scottish woman living an ordinary life, who stumbles violently into her birthright as the world’s most powerful werewolf. The sudden appearance of a dark, mysterious (and very attractive) guardian further confuses her as her powers begin to develop and she begins to understand that her life can never be the same again. The reader will be swept up in Tommi’s journey as she’s thrown into the middle of a centuries-old battle and a world peopled with expert warriors and vicious enemies – this is the start of a series – and a world – you will fall in love with.

REVIEW

I could have kept reading for another books worth… I hope we’re getting another book Ms. Lewis! From a rather slow start, I gradually began to enjoy being with Tommi, I have tried to work out if this book is YA or NA, but I’d say its a bit of both… The characters are in their 20s but there’s no actual sex, although there are quite descriptive scenes that involves Sexual assault, and graphic fight and murder scenes. So I would say age 15 up.

I love paranormal. So when I saw this on netgalley I requested it and hoped for the best. Thanks to the publisher for saying yes!

If you like werewolves and sassy females that’d take you on rather than running away. Then this books for you. Yes the story line is a well versed trope. But I enjoyed it.
Ms. Lewis has made Tommi strong but not a bad ass. Although she has always been different, arty, rocked to her own beat, and a Muai Thai practitioner, she’s also a loyal friend, hurts and deals with grief as you’d expect most 20 something’s. There were a few feminist comments, she was a bit bitchy about some women, but then again, what girl woman can put their hand up and say they’ve not bitched about a girl!
No overall Tommi is a very three dimensional character. I connected with her on various levels and with this story, not only because I love art but also because I have never felt I fitted in with the in crowd.

The book is set in Scotland, Dundee, and then briefly in New Zealand, Rotorua and Lake Taupo. Although I’d not call those places remote, as I’ve seen it described on the authors website, Rotorua is a big place…. I’ve lived in what would be described as remote NZ and even then town was 25 mins away. I’ve been to these two places in the book, and the passages felt more real I guess because of this, but I would have liked more, such as the Maori based facts and of course, since there are and never have been wolves in NZ , it seemed odd that the Ihi would carve totems with wolves and was a bit of a puzzle to me… In real life Maori carvings are mainly of ancestors, I was also puzzled why an Australian author chose NZ/Maori instead of Australia/Aboriginal. But on further digging found that Ms Lewis is of Maori descent who moved to Queensland as a child, as have lots of Kiwis in the past present and future. Nor was I upset that these whanu end up being the villains of the story. It would have been a boring story otherwise. But the Maori side of this tale was nothing like reality, I’ve found them to be vary gracious and welcoming. Any way back to the story.

Tommi deals with each discovery with the right amount of emotional angst yet I was pleased to see that the author allowed our heroine to have her brain… No going off without first sending a text to her friends with the address first. And when dealing with situations, she could help herself, and didn’t need a man to rescue her, I guess our authors feminist side was showing. But I was glad that all men were not painted as unnecessary.

But there’s not a HEA here, although there is a romantic connection between Tommi and our appointed Guardian Lorcan.

Lorcan… Oh my! He was a real worth book boyfriend. But when things started to take a romantic turn Ms Lewis road blocked it

The storyline ends with a lot of mayhem deaths and sadness, and our heroine going off on her own, leaving a note for Lorcan saying she’ll meet him at the airport.

So I’m left wanting more, and hope that there is otherwise I feel I’ve been left with unresolved questions.

Maria Lewis has worked as a journalist for the past 10 years. She started her career as a police reporter but made the switch to film and entertainment reporting because it is much more, well, entertaining. A former reporter at The Daily Telegraph, she also written for the New York Post, Empire magazine, Huffington Post, The Sunday Mail, Junkee and BuzzFeed, to name but a few. She currently works for The Feed (SBS TV).